NYPD psychologist: I was unconscious when husband was shot

WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. - A senior psychologist with the NYPD who is accused of trying to kill her husband as he slept told police she had been hit in the head and was out cold at the time he was shot.

She also seemed to hint that her husband's alleged mistress may be responsible.

Emily Dearden, 46, of Yonkers, N.Y., was arrested in November 2014, just weeks after her real estate developer-husband, 47-year-old Kenneth Dearden, filed a lawsuit alleging she shot him in the back of the head as he slept one year earlier, in November 2013.

The lawsuit alleges Emily Dearden wanted her husband dead so that she could be with her lover, a Texas man with whom she had been having an affair.

Emily Dearden
Yonkers Police Department

Emily Dearden was indicted last week on charges of attempted murder, assault and weapons possession. Prosecutors say she shot her husband while the couple's children were sleeping just feet away, in another room.

She pleaded not guilty at her arraignment Thursday and the indictment against her was made public, including interviews she gave to investigators following the incident.

In a written statement provided to authorities just hours after the shooting, Emily Dearden said she was sleeping in bed with her husband when she awoke at around 3:30 a.m. and went downstairs to get a drink. She said when she went to go back upstairs, she was struck in the head by an unknown person with an unknown metal object, causing her to lose consciousness.

"I got hit hard on the left side of my head. ...I don't know who hit me. I never saw it coming. The next thing that I became aware of was my husband Ken shaking me, asking me what happened," she wrote.

She said her husband was bleeding from the head and told her he needed to go to the hospital, so they called 911.

Emily Dearden went on to say that both she and her husband were having affairs. She said she was involved with a man from Texas named David Roudebush and her husband was involved with a woman named Candy Panetta from Pennsylvania.

"I don't believe that David had anything to do with this. I can't speak for Candy," she wrote.

In the lawsuit Kenneth Dearden filed late last year, there is no mention of a woman named Candy -- instead it focuses solely on Emily Dearden as the perpetrator.

Kenneth Dearden alleges he awoke at around 4 a.m. on the morning of the shooting to a "searing pain in his jaw" and his pillow covered in blood. Not realizing he had been shot, he made his way downstairs and found his wife lying on the floor, claiming she had been hit on the head.

When authorities responded to the house, the lawsuit says, investigators found no signs of forced entry -- the home alarm hadn't sounded and the family's dog hadn't reacted.

Kenneth Dearden alleges his wife shot him with a pistol given to her by her parents. He says the weapon was later found by investigators in the couple's basement.

According to the indictment released Thursday, Emily Dearden repeatedly told investigators there were no guns in the home. She is, however, charged with possessing four guns, including two .22-caliber pistols -- the same caliber gun prosecutors say was used in the crime.

Emily Dearden, who was suspended from her job at the NYPD following her arrest and is currently out on $150,000 bond, faces up to 25 years in prison if convicted. Her lawyer said Thursday that his client "is confident she will prevail."